Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a 2011 American science fiction film directed by Rupert Wyatt and starring James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, David Oyelowo, and Andy Serkis. Written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, it is 20th Century Fox's reboot of the Planet of the Apes series, intended to act as an origin story for a new series of films. Its premise is similar to the fourth film in the original series, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), but it is not a direct remake of that film. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was released on August 5, 2011, to critical and commercial success. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. It was also nominated for five Saturn Awards including Best Director for Wyatt and Best Writing for Jaffa and Silver, winning Best Science Fiction Film, Best Supporting Actor for Serkis and Best Special Effects. Serkis' performance as Caesar was widely acclaimed, earning him many nominations from many associations which do not usually recognize performance capture as traditional acting. A sequel to the film, ''Dawn of the Planet of the Apes'', was released on July 11, 2014, and a third film to follow, titled War for the Planet of the Apes, is planned for a July 14, 2017 release. Plot Will Rodman, a San Francisco scientist, has been working on "ALZ-112", a genetically engineered retrovirus that may be a cure for Alzheimer's Disease, for five years. ALZ-112 not only repairs brain cells, but genetically enhances them, giving chimpanzees a human level of intelligence. One of his test subjects is "Bright Eyes", a female chimpanzee recently captured from the West African Jungle. Much to everyone's shock, Bright Eyes goes on a rampage two months into her trial, before security is forced to kill her in front of board members, thus destroying any chance of developing ALZ-112 further. It is then discovered, however, that Bright Eyes' aggression was not due to the drug, but due to her maternal instinct to protect her baby, to whom she had secretly given birth a day or two earlier. Will's money and power hungry boss, Steven Jacobs, orders all twelve test chimpanzees put down after Bright Eyes' rampage, but Robert Franklin, the chimp handler responsible for carrying out this order, cannot bring himself to kill the chimpanzee baby, and instead gives it to Will, who names him Caesar and raises him in his house. Caesar inherited his mother's high intelligence due to the drug, thus learning at a fast rate. Caesar is able to learn sign language with the help of Will and a veterinarian named Caroline Aranha. After three years, Will also gives a sample of ALZ-112 to his father, Charles, who is suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. At first his father improves but five years later, his body's immune system develops antibodies that fight off the virus and his dementia returns. In his state of dementia, Charles gets into his neighbor's car and turns it on, the key carelessly left in the ignition. He presses the gas and hits the cars in front of him and behind him, getting the attention of the neighbor, Hunsiker, who threatens and pushes down Charles. Caesar is also alerted of the situation and jumps out of a window, attacking and biting the neighbor's finger off in Charles's defense. After the incident, Caesar is forced to leave Will's house and is held in the San Bruno Primate Shelter run by John Landon, where the apes are held in cages with the exception of intermissions where they are released into a jungle-themed play area. The apes inside the facility are treated cruelly by Landon's son, Dodge, who works as a guard there. At the primate facility, Caesar starts out being treated poorly by both the staff and by most with the other apes. In the exercise area, he is horribly beaten by the dominant chimp, Rocket. Despite this, Caesar manages to form a friendship with Maurice, a former circus orangutan who knew sign language as well. Later, Dodge brings his friends into the facility who tease the apes. Without caution his male friend moves too close to Caesar's cage and is grabbed by Caesar, having his pocket knife unknowingly stolen. Caesar ties the pocket knife to a stick and uses it to unlock the door and free himself. He goes into the play den where he frees Buck, a large and aggressive male gorilla, gaining his respect and friendship. Caesar, with Buck at his side, lures Rocket into the exercise area where he hits Rocket over the head with a metal gasoline canister (one of the toys given to the apes) but does no more harm, establishing his dominance over the apes in the facility. Later Caesar steals cookies from Dodge and gives them to Rocket though while tempted to eat them all instead gives them to the other apes. Caesar the gains the respect and companionship of Rocket and the others. Later on, Caesar tells Maurice his reason for making rocket share was because "Apes alone weak. Apes together Strong!" However, upon noticing several apes behaving foolishly, Maurice states "Apes stupid" which unknowingly gives Caesar an idea. Meanwhile, Will creates a more powerful virus called ALZ-113 to further treat his father, and new tests begin on ten chimps, with more later taken from the San Bruno facility. It strengthens the intelligence of the apes but, unknown to Will, it is fatal to humans. Franklin is exposed to the new virus and begins sneezing blood. Later, he is found dead in his apartment, his face covered in blood. Will discovers the deadliness of the virus and attempts to warn Jacobs, but he insists on proceeding with the tests, most notably on a bonobo who has a scar over his blind eye, Koba. Will quits his job at Gen-Sys Laboratories, angered at Jacobs for his decisions. Caesar eventually escapes from the primate facility and travels to Will's house, where he steals some canisters of an air-borne strain of ALZ-113 and returns to the facility, releasing it throughout the cage area and enhancing the intelligence and mental capabilities of himself and his fellow apes. The next day, he examines the apes and realizes they are Evolved Apes like him, with his people now more intelligent Caesar begins to put another plan into action. That evening, he beats down his sadistic caretaker, Dodge, when he notices Caesar in the play area while he is not supposed to be. Caesar shows his first capability of speech by shouting "NO!" at Dodge. This caused the captors and the apes to be shocked at Caesar's first word. Caesar knocks Dodge out and puts him in a cage and starts to free the other apes. The apes witness the remaining night watchman, Rodney, enter and start beating on him until Caesar stops them because he was kind to the apes, and instead locks him in a cage. Dodge then wakes up and Caesar sprays him with a hose while his electric cattle-prod is turned on, electrocuting and killing him when he attempts to attack Caesar again. Caesar then releases Buck and the apes at the facility then escape into the city by breaking the windows above the play area and climbing through them. Caesar divides his forces into two, with his group making their way to the Gen-Sys lab as he knows some of the shelter apes and experimented are there such as Lucky and Cornelia. Meanwhile, Buck releases the apes at the San Francisco Zoo, successfully leading an escape of hundreds of apes through the streets of San Francisco terrorizing the city and people. The apes then use a trolley to head for their next target Golden Gate Bridge where they planned to cross to get to the redwoods of Muir Woods Park but are forced to do battle with a police blockade on the Golden Gate Bridge meant to stop them from crossing. Caesar, realizing something is up stops his army and launches a three pronged attack with most of the chimpanzees guided by Koba attacking from the bridge's high-wire supports, the orangutans and some of the chimpanzees led by Maurice attacking from the bottom supports, the gorillas and several other chimps headed by Caesar, Buck and Rocket leading the charge straight down the bridge. Caesar has the gorillas push a bus in the range of the police bullets and stealing a police horse orders for his army to attack resulting a fierce battle. Despite, their advance weapons the police are defeated by the apes, however Jacobs arrives in a helicopter and Police Chief John Hamil who begins gunning down a few of the apes before setting sights on Caesar. Buck throws Caesar to safety and sacrifices his life to take down the helicopter which crashes on the bridge, killing all people inside except Jacobs, who begs for help but is pushed down with the helicopter into the bay below by Koba on Caesar's orders. Most of the apes survives the battle, and make it away from the city into the redwood forest of Muir Woods Park. Will stealing a police car follows the apes, arriving at the forest calling for Caesar until he is suddenly attacked by Koba, however, Caesar appears to stop the angry bonobo before he can do any more harm to Will. Will then warns Caesar that the humans are strong and could do serious harm to him and his people. He promises to protect Caesar if he only comes home where it is safe. Caesar, looking upon his followers and now being capable of basic human speech, hugs Will and informs him "Caesar is home" with the surprised Will giving Caesar his blessings while Caesar gives the assurance he will be safe with his mass army of apes. The ending scene shows, the apes making way for Caesar as he makes it the top of the his favorite tree, where he is joined by Maurice and Rocket on the adjacent trees. The apes look over San Francisco watching the chaos they inflicted unfold on the humans. A mid-credit scene reveals that Hunsiker, who had been infected with the virus by the now-deceased Franklin, is a pilot. As he walks into the airport, a timetable is zoomed into a flight to New York, with a graphic showing air routes connecting to Paris and from there to other cities around the world, implying the spread of a global pandemic. In which many, many people died. Cast Humans *James Franco as Dr. William "Will" Rodman, a scientist who is trying to discover a cure for his father's Alzheimer's disease by testing ALZ-112 on chimps. He is a father figure to Caesar. James Franco was cast after talks with Tobey Maguire broke down. *Freida Pinto as Caroline Aranha, a primatologist who starts a relationship with Will and grows attached to Caesar. *John Lithgow as Charles Rodman, Will's Alzheimer's-afflicted father and a former music teacher who improves after Will gives him the ALZ-112 and forms a strong bond with Caesar. *Brian Cox as John Landon, manager of the San Bruno Primate Shelter where Caesar is confined for a time. His full name is a reference to one of the astronauts in the original Planet of the Apes. *Tom Felton as Dodge Landon, John's son and an animal caretaker at the shelter, who enjoys treating the apes cruelly. His first and last name are references to two of the astronauts in the original Planet of the Apes. *David Oyelowo as Steven Jacobs, Will's greedy boss. His last name is a reference to Arthur P. Jacobs, the producer of the original Planet of the Apes series. *Tyler Labine as Robert Franklin, a chimp handler at Gen-Sys and one of Will's friends. His surname is a reference to Franklin Schaffner, the director of the original film. *Jamie Harris as Rodney, a caretaker and a nightwatchman who is much kinder to the apes at the sanctuary and is regularly victimized by Dodge for this. *David Hewlett as Douglas Hunsiker, Will's hot-headed neighbor. *Chelah Horsdal as Irena, a nurse who is looking after Charles. Apes *Andy Serkis as Caesar, a common chimpanzee whose intelligence is increased from inheriting ALZ-112 from his mother during her pregnancy, and who is raised by Will for eight years. He leads an ape revolution against humanity. The character is based on Caesar from Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes of the original series. *Karin Konoval as Maurice, a Bornean orangutan who was retired from the circus and knows sign language; he becomes Caesar's closest ally. His name is a reference to Maurice Evans,needed who played the orangutan Dr. Zaius in the original Planet of the Apes (1968) and Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). Konoval also cameos as the court clerk whom Will briefly argues with about his appeal. *Terry Notary as Rocket, the dominant common chimpanzee at the ape sanctuary, until Caesar overthrows him. His name references the set decorator of Planet of the Apes, Norman Rockett.needed Notary also plays Bright Eyes, Caesar's mother who was captured in Africa. Her name is the nickname given to Charlton Heston's human character by Zira in the 1968 film. *Richard Ridings as Buck, a Western lowland gorilla who pledges his allegiance to Caesar after he is freed by him. His name is a reference to Buck Kartalian,needed who played the gorilla Julius in the 1968 film and the gorilla Frank in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. *Devyn Dalton as Cornelia, a female common chimpanzee in the ape sanctuary. Her name is based on that of Cornelius,needed played by Roddy McDowall in the original Planet of the Apes. *Jay Caputo as Alpha, the dominant male common chimpanzee of Bright Eyes' troop and Caesar's father. *Christopher Gordon as Koba, a scarred bonobo who has spent most of his life in laboratories and holds a grudge against humans. He is named Koba after an alias often used by Joseph Stalin. Videos Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Official Trailer (HD) Rise of the Planet of the Apes Official Trailer 2 - (2011) Category:Planet of the Apes Category:Films Category:Media Category:Quaternary Media Category:Live-action Films